Semiconductor technologies are continually progressing to smaller feature sizes, down to 65 nanometers, 45 nanometers, and below. Resist materials used to produce such small feature sizes no longer meet the requirement of resolution and process. For example, an existing positive tone resist coated on a substrate surface is irradiated by UV light through a photomask, generating proton acid in the exposed areas. Then, a post exposure baking process is applied to the substrates for enhancing the acid amplification and the acid reaction with resist causes the polarity transformation in the exposed areas. A developer rinse is applied to the resist for dissolving the resist in the exposed areas. However, the resist and the corresponding method are vulnerable due to acid diffusion, especially during the post exposure baking. This leads to the presence of the acid in the unexposed areas, resulting in low imaging contrast and degraded imaging quality. For example, as a result of acid diffusion, it is difficult to transfer narrow trench patterns such as metal lines and narrow column patters such as via holes using current lithography techniques. Therefore, what is needed is a method and the material to improve the imaging contrast and quality of lithographic pattern transfer.